Help? Trying to Get My Grade & Style

Hey guys!I’m getting into travel photography. Here to promote travel, living your life to the fullest, and inspiring others to escape the 9-5. I've done photography for many years on and off, but I'm here trying to get your advice so I can get serious!

Type of photography I will be doing:I will be in most of my photos “modeling” one way or another, rather than just showing off the location or landscape. I want to show my life as I travel and participate in activities but, there will be a times when I can’t or do not want to be in the photos, such as landscapes.

I am a nature person, I love camping and the outdoors. I will try to feature the nature as much of that as possible but, a lot of traveling and sightseeing is done in cities so, it’s going to be a mix of everything.

My Grading Style:I know the style I want to implement, but I can't get the grading look in my photos!I use lightroom & photoshop but I do not have or use any LUTS as I can't seem to find what fits my needs. I have listed a few examples below. I would love to hear your input on how I could achieve similar looks. From taking the photos to grading them.

1) Jacobhttps://www.instagram.​com/jacob/?hl=enI love this because of the use of colors. Each one has so much colour that it just pops. If you are scrolling through Instagram these photos will just pop out at you. There is a lot of color depth with the orange and teals.

Most of these look as if they were taken during the sunset/sunrise. But others have been taken in clear blue skies. Even those that have overcast and nearly blown out skies still have lots of bright colors in them.

How would I go with grading such pictures?There doesn’t seem to be a single type of grade as each photo is different. It appears the saturation has been pushed high.

2) Bejaminhttps://www.instagram.​com/bejamin/The colors here are awesome too! The photos have that creamy look, and have that minimalism look.The colors are not as vibrant, and there isn’t as much contrast, but the photos still stand out a lot.

How are the photos so creamy looking? Its so nice! (Even though that arent long exposures)

3) Reneeroaminghttps://www.instagram.​com/reneeroaming/With this one, I like the grade, but I love her nature photos even more.There will be times when instead of being in a city or somewhere where there is lots of color, I would be out camping or in the outdoors. I would like to try to capture photos like these but, implement the grades like those above.

I've attached 2 sample photos of mine. Looking at them, they dont "pop" as much as I would like.Not enough saturation? More contrast? What could I do?How do I get that grade as those examples above -- Not only in these two photos I linked, but in general**These were taken on my phone in RAW so the quality isnt the best

What gear are you using? Cell phones are great, but I think you'd be well served with full frame camera, decent wide glass, and a good tripod.

If I were shooting that first photo, I'd be using a lens wide enough to get the top of the waterfall in the frame, and f/8-16 and HFD to get everything in the frame in sharp focus. On top of that, a shutter speed of at least 3 to 6 seconds would greatly enhance the 'dreamy' look of the waterfall. To my tastes, it is also a bit underexposed.

All of the "mentors" that you linked to are talented at post processing. Which usually implies that they are starting with large raw files. Which usually means they are not using their phones. But, I could be wrong.

With very dramatic and attention grabbing imagery, there are many ingredients: equipment, artistic vision, timing, weather, post processing, due diligence of being in the right place at the right time, etc.

So, ultimately, it is a culmination of not just "being into photography" for years, but being "serious about photography" for years.

Trying...failing...rea​ding....trying again...failing again...reading more...trying again, reading more, trying again, etc. This is the path to success. When the subjects of your imagery are destination places, the effort to get out there every morning or every night, is what usually will weed out those that are "into photography", and those that are "serious about photography".

So, look not for a short cut, but stick to the path and hold tight your belief in your vision, and ultimately you will achieve what you work for.

MichaelI looked at the first link you have up and much of his work is done 1) in the twilight hours when colors POP more against the darker or more colorful sunrise/sunset sky and 2) Some of his images also appear to be shot towards the sun so the light's brightness washes the image a bit. You can see the image getting brighter and over exposed nearest the edge where the sun is just outside of the frame.

What I am noticing in the first couple links is solid photography (exposure, quality of light) which is the starting point you need. This can be achieved with a modern phone camera (better to have the big guns but not necessary for Instagram). The images also look to have solid post processing work (I'm only looking at thumbnails to get a sense of grading).

I notice that they both have fairly restricted color palettes. The first one is especially leaning towards complimentary colors. The second is going for a much more muted look.

LUTs are fine, but unlikely to just get you results like these because results that "work" typically require hand tuning. Once you have a given scene dialed in, a LUT can work and it might get you close. At least this is my experience.

If you ask for feedback, take what is useful and ignore the rest. . If you do find something useful, thank the person who helped you or like their post. In that way you encourage what you want more of. Complaining generally encourages more of what you don't want .

I'm answering from my tablet, so I don't have the tools I would prefer (Capture One or PS), so I wouldn't call these sophisticated edits . But they might be enough to move the conversation in a productive direction.

Two more variants. I'm not sure how obvious the differences will be (they don't seem subtle to me, but...).

These are the same as before, but with a quick run through a very primitive color grading tool (as in, "old school movie film color grading toggle controls" like the predigital days). But, hey, it works.

I would be very interested to hear what you think, Michael Frymus (OP). Specifically, looking at the variants we have created, which ones do you like or dislike and, as much as you can verbalize, what specifically do you like or dislike about them. This kind of feedback will make it much easier to get very specific with the suggestions we can make about post processing.

Michael Frymus wrote in post #18378048wow gez. I only linked you two photos. And those have been the ONLY photos I ever took of myself facing backwards. Thats not the point here either

Michael Frymus wrote in post #18379049I'm asking about grading tips, and not the about the way I'm posing in these two photos

this is posted at the top of the Critique Corner forum main page, and under the main list of forums:

Critique CornerFORUMS ➔ Photography Talk by GenreBy posting your photos here you are specifically requesting comments, advice and critique of value and merits of both photos and the photographer..

POTN as a whole allows discussions to go further "off track" that what people might expect. It might take some getting use to but it has worked well as far as I am concerned or care. If you don't like the direction a thread is going it seems to be best to just ignore that line of discussion. fwiw.

anyway, hard to give specifics since the two examples you posted are pretty different, and unless I missed it you didn't list your editing software.

Color correction is a huge topic. You might want to look on lynda.com for good tutorials, stuff on youtube may or may not be worth your time and can potentially send you down the wrong path.

knowing the difference between global corrections and specific corrections to certain tones is probably an important starting point.

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